Archive for February, 2012

Everyone has stress in their job. I was trying to think of a job that didn’t have some sort of stress and couldn’t come up with anything. Here are a few thoughts:

Bartender – what if you make the wrong drink

Day care employee – their entire day is stressful, they try to keep kids alive an entertained

Toll booth worker – how can you be sure that the person driving up isn’t going to spit out their coffee on you

CFO – will anyone believe you didn’t dump your company shares before retiring just out of coincidence

See? It isn’t easy. The key to stress is how you deal with it. My method is twofold. I play the drums once or twice a week and workout every weekday. Both are a great stress release, or they were, until I moved to a gym that has televisions in the cardio room.

I have a very common ailment. If there is a screen in a room that has moving pictures on it, my eyes are going to be drawn to it. I’ve given up fighting it. In fact, if I’m watching a game at home and my wife wants to ask me something, I have learned to pause the game (thank you, DVR) and in some cases, turn off the monitor so that even the still images are not causing a distraction.

For that reason, if I’m in the cardio room on the bike, spinning class, treadmill, rowing machine, etc. I’m watching the screens. At any given time there are four channels broadcast. ESPN, HLN (headline news), NBC (on the local channel) and whatever network shows The Price is Right at 11:30 AM. Since I am a fairly normal male, I’m usually watching ESPN but my eyes can’t help being drawn to HLN on a regular basis. This is especially true during spin class.

Spinning is an interesting class which most people by now are familiar with. You ride a stationary bike that allows you to make the pedaling harder or easier by spinning a dial or pushing buttons. Usually you have a spin instructor talking you through hills, sprints, jumps, etc. The class has music that plays while you ride. It’s basically aerobics on a bike and you don’t have to be that coordinated. So one would think that this would be distracting enough.

One would be incorrect. I sit on the same bike twice a week and right over my head I can see Headline news. The monitor is actually pointed out in to the cardio room so I’m really only watching at an angle but it is enough.

So what does this have to do with stress? Have you ever watched Headline News for an hour at a time? Maybe you have. Have you ever done it while you’re sweating and breathing hard? You know what? Don’t answer that. Here is what they show on HLN in that hour.

An aunt is accused of killing her five-year-old niece. She was punishing her for eating a candy bar.

Some school gave a nine-year-old girl four shots of HPV vaccine without consulting with her parents.

The king and queen of Sweden have their first grand child.

One of the Kardashian’s is having a baby girl. She already has a son. You can go to our webpage and tell us what you think about her having a girl.

A former teacher is accused on forty counts of lewd conduct with his students.

Sarah Palin thinks that Obama’s first four years have been a complete sham.

Newt Gingrich says the one word to describe him is Cheerful.

The republicans are finally done with their debates.

Google knows everything you are doing even if you are not online.

Everything you do on the Internet is going to come back to haunt you.

A woman is protesting the wars by not paying her taxes so the fed is suing her.

There was a reporter doing a live report who kept talking while a car crashed into a taxi behind her.

Colorado had record winds and snow and a number of homes were destroyed.